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Road Trip - Joseph Decuis - Revisit

5:53 AM | Labels: Joseph Decuis, Road Trips

We have been having some great dinners lately. And a couple of weeks ago it was hubby’s birthday and at his request, we headed up to Joseph Decuis (not like he had any trouble convincing me). We checked in at the Inn, where we had not yet stayed, and walked down the street to dinner. I love Roanoke at the holidays because it is such a cute little town anyway, and then when you add lots of lights, it is even cuter.

For dinner we were seated in the glass atrium part of the restaurant, which was also new to us. I was a little worried it would be cold in there with all the glass (and it was a cold night), but it was well insulated and well heated—a nice change of pace for restaurants in Indiana. All the little twinkly lights gave it nice atmosphere. Hubby and I usually split pretty much everything and since it was his birthday, I sort of let him choose the path. The first thing he wanted to do was to skip any kind of soup or salad course and get the charcuterie platter ($18). It was one of the best ones I have had in memory. There were about 6 different house cured meats (well, apparently one came from Smoking Goose) and they were delicious. I liked that they gave you lots of different accompaniments as well—everything from a little wedge of cheese to various pickles and sweet chutney. I also really liked the hearty mustard they served with it—this is one of my favorite things to eat with charcuterie. Who needs greens when you can have an amazing selection of cured meats right? We had a hard time deciding which was our favorite.

For our second course we ordered a special (they always have quite a few specials, so don’t make up your mind until you hear about them) which was polenta with mushrooms and parmesan. Wow, was this good. It may have been my favorite item of the evening. The polenta was creamy and rich, but just coarse enough to give it an interesting texture and not taste like you are eating baby food or something—the mushrooms were cooked with bits of pancetta and the whole thing was drizzled with white truffle oil. I seriously could have licked the plate on this one. I had a hard time sharing.

We also shared the Oysters casino ($15) which we have had on another visit as well. They were topped with Tasso ham, green onions and parmesan and then broiled (supposed to have bell peppers as well but we skipped them). The Tasso ham made them a little spicy and added a definite salty taste which was great—and it reminds you of New Orleans (the restaurant has a definite Cajun/Creole bent to many dishes). The green onions were very plentiful—not used just like a garnish as they often are and gave it a nice slightly crunchy flavor as well as a gentle onion taste. The top was a little crunchy from the cheese and I think a bit of breadcrumbs. I tend to prefer my oysters briefly cooked, and these were a great example.

For our main dish we shared one actual entrée, the Creole seared grouper ($36)(picture is a half portion). The fish was a total New Orleans-style dish and they pulled it off really well. The fish was perfectly seared and tender and served on top of dirty rice, crab étouffée and with collard greens and Hollandaise. There were a lot of flavors going on, but they are all things that complement each other so well, and I liked the tangy Hollandaise to lighten up the spiciness from the other things (and the heat built on your lips the more you ate it).

At this point we were pretty stuffed, but we were completely spoiled when they brought us a very generous cheese plate to take back to the Inn with us. And since we had the whole inn to ourselves that night (sheer luck) we sat in the dining room and enjoyed it with our leftover wine. The cheese plate was great—loved the marcona almonds which are a slight addiction for me right now. I also loved that on both the cheese plate and the charcuterie, they toasted the bread just right. It still had some softness in the middle, but some nice grill marks that gave it a nice toasty flavor (and made it not so soft it was hard to spread cheese on it). I always love some sweetness as well, and we got that with apple slices and dates.

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Indiana, and we seem to always hit it around hubby’s birthday and Mother’s Day (go figure) (if you go in the spring, and they have the fried morels, they are a must order—I included a picture from our last visit). We need to figure out another time of year to go I think so we can try some of the other seasons’ food (or maybe it is just an excuse to fit in another trip). Hmmm….and I would love to see that carpaccio back on the menu..man, that was delicious. Regardless, next time you want a road trip (about an hour and a half from Indy) and some really, really good food, I highly recommend Joseph Decuis.

Joseph Decuis

191 North Main Street

Roanoke, Indiana 46783

260/672-1715

www.josephdecuis.com

morels

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Road Trip Cincinnati - Part 2

6:33 AM | Labels: Cincinnati restaurants, Findlay Market, Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, Nicholson's Pub, Road Trips

On our second day in Cincinnati we had a busy day—food wise and otherwise. We started in the morning at the Findlay Market which was a place I had always wanted to go and hadn’t. I loved the energy of it—it was jam packed with people. The neighborhood around seems a little deserted, but I really enjoyed the market itself. We had a nice breakfast at one of the vendors—A Taste of Belgium. Egg, gruyere and thin ham wrapped in a crepe. It was a perfect thing to grab for breakfast.

After some wondering around, we met up with hubby’s good fried at Nicholson’s. It’s a gastropub, and has a very pubby looking exterior—although I was surprised at how new it looked both inside and out. Our friends were running a little late, so we went ahead and ordered the Scotch egg appetizer ($8). They were good, although not the best I have had—I liked that they served them with some dressed greens on the side and I liked the drizzle of mustard sauce, although I would have liked a little more for dipping. I do think mustard and eggs is a good combo.

Hubby and I decided to split the mussels for our main dish ($12). They were really, really good—the broth was described as white wine, garlic and herbed butter—and those ingredients were definitely there. Pretty sure based on the creamy color that there was cream in there as well. But the mussels were some of the best I have had in awhile. Super tender and the broth had a ton of flavor. Oh yeah, and they came with duck fat frites. Those frites dipped in the broth were amazing. I have had duck fat frites before and have enjoyed them, but these had a lot more flavor than any of the others. The only downside with the mussels is it really was a portion for one. Normally with mussels you get so many that we always share, but this was a very reasonable portion. In other words, I was annoyed I had to share. So we added an order of the poutine ($7.50) on and I was really glad we did. Man, this was really good too (and apparently completely distracting because somehow I took no pictures after the Scotch eggs). The poutine was more of those duck fat frites topped with truffled mushroom ragu and fresh cheese. I loved this—I loved that they used mushrooms instead of the rich meaty gravy I usually see (and often pork, etc). It made it feel not so heavy and greasy. The fries in general stayed pretty crispy too which was nice (maybe it was just because we ate them so fast). I would so order this again.

All in all, a great lunch and base for preparing for the Reds’ game we then went to after lunch (the Reds won) which was good because hubby and his friend, shall we say, enjoyed their beers. After the game was over, we just sort of started walking toward downtown with the intention of a few more drinks and more food. We didn’t have any plans, and weren’t dressed particularly well but ended up randomly walking into Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse and scoring a table in the bar. Even though we looked like we had spent the afternoon at the game, I appreciated the professionalism of the staff—they were really nice (and we weren’t the only ones for sure). Turned out to be a good choice too because after an hour or so all the baseball players from both teams started filtering in which was kind of fun to watch.

We just got a bunch of appetizers from the menu to share—and I have to be honest, I wasn’t wowed by any of them. Probably my favorite thing was the barbecued shrimp and grits ($21). The shrimp were New Orleans style “BBQ” which is more of a butter and Worcestershire type of sauce. The grits were nice and creamy and buttery and the shrimp wasn’t overcooked. We also had a chophouse salad ($8) which had all my favorite ingredients—blue cheese, egg, bacon, and red onion, but something about it seemed flat to me—it had a Parmesan dressing but it just didn’t have a zip that I wanted. Hubby liked it quite a bit better than me though.

Sadly, the beef tartare ($13) was a letdown as well. The beef was clearly good quality and fresh, but there just wasn’t much seasoning at all—a cute little poached quail egg that gave it a teeny bit of extra richness, but it was really calling out for some mustard or something salty. The crab cake ($15) didn’t fare much better. It was a little dry, even with the dollop of crème fraiche on top. The pommes Anna ($8) were beautiful, and were a nice side to have with everything and had a nice buttery and crunchy exterior. Not sure I would order them again, but I enjoyed them at the time.

Honestly, we were having more fun hanging out with our friends, drinking some nice wine and enjoying the Reds’ win, so we didn’t mind, but this meal was in retrospect very disappointing, particularly compared with all the other wonderful food we ate in Cincinnati. But I would highly recommend Orchids at Palm Court (see my last Cincinnati post) and Nicholson’s.

Nicholson’s

625 Washington Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/564-9111

www.nicholsonspub.com

Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse

700 Walnut Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/ 784-1200

www.jeffruby.com

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Road Trip- Orchids at Palm Court - Cincinnati

2:51 AM | Labels: Cincinnati restaurants, Orchids at Palm Court, Road Trips

Hubby and I celebrated our anniversary recently with a trip to Cincinnati—well, we were celebrating our anniversary and visiting with some friends. The first night (on our own) we went to Orchids at Palm Court (this was the big anniversary dinner).

First of all, wow, what a cool space—hubby and I have a soft spot for deco things-- décor, buildings, whatever-- and this place is deco to the extreme and just overall impressive. The restaurant and bar is set in a huge two story room that just transports you. The whole hotel is like that actually. You can really feel what it must have felt like to stay in a place like this back in the day. And it makes you grateful for keeping historic buildings and rooms true to their original character.

They first brought us out bread service with butter and olive oil with big chunks of soft, rich roasted garlic and an amuse bouche. All were outstanding. As soon as I saw the little egg shell the amuse was served in, I was already pretty sure I was going to like whatever was in there—and I did. It was a cauliflower and saffron custard that was baked in the egg shell with a little piece of house made bacon. That bacon was really good, and the little crunch was awesome. I would have loved more of it.

I started with the sweet corn soup ($11) with polenta angnolotti, summer truffles, and roasted corn. It was a very nice soup, with a nice flavor of truffle (although I think it was coming from truffle oil)—the dumpling was maybe a little dense for me, but it was nice to have something in there to give some texture to the soup. The corn was also interesting—it seemed almost freeze dried and then slowly rehydrated as it sat in the soup.

Hubby started with the sweetbreads ($12) which were some of the best I have had. The sweetbreads (which were thymus) were lightly fried and were nice and tender, but what made them shine was the sauce and accompaniments. They were served with chanterelle mushrooms and little fingerling potatoes and the most amazing sherry vinaigrette. It wasn’t just a standard vinaigrette either—there was a little bit of chili in there giving it even more flavor. I thought I really liked my soup and then I tried this dish—it had so many layers of flavor, it made my soup seem kind of boring. This may have been the best dish of the night.

For a second course we shared the blue cheese beignets ($8) with tart greens, apple, almond tuile and spiced honey gastrique. This was also a great combination of flavors—I love some sweetness with blue cheese and the tartness of the apples and greens made for a wonderful mix. The little beignets were crisp and warm and very blue cheesy. The little bits of almond tuile added a little crunch factor too. It was a great salad course (the picture is a half order, because the kitchen split it before bringing it out).

For my main dish, I had another appetizer, the lobster salad ($13). This one was really good as well. There was a lightly seasoned lobster salad at the bottom topped with a fried egg, and served with crème fraiche and caviar cream. There were also some little dots of caviar around the plate and some crispy phyllo-type “noodles” on top. I liked it when the yolk broke into the lobster salad giving it extra richness—my only complaint here is that the egg was fried a little too hard and there wasn’t much runny yolk there. I would have preferred a softer egg overall. I did like the crunch from the ribbons of phyllo on top—gave it the right variation in texture. Hubby would probably say this was his favorite.

Hubby had the lamb loin with parsnip puree, maitake mushrooms, onions and a mustard sauce ($38). Again, very good. The sauce had a nice mustardy flavor and the entire dish tasted like fall. The lamb was very tender.

They have an old school dessert tray that they wheel over to show you all the desserts, we went with a chocolate banana combo that was very, very good (and you always gotta love when they write things on your plate). It had an intense dark chocolate filling that was delicious. And the caramel ice cream on top was really good too (if there is a dessert with chocolate, caramel and bananas, it is almost a sure bet with hubby and I.)

Top to bottom, it was one of the better fine dining experiences I have had in awhile. The food, the atmosphere, the service—all of it was very, very good. Exactly what you want in a fine dining experience, and exactly what we wanted for our anniversary.

Orchids at Palm Court

Hilton Cincinnati

35 West Fifth Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/421-9100

http://www.orchidsatpalmcourt.com/restaurants.html#anchor1

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Chicago - Summer 2012

6:47 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Quartino, Road Trips, Rustic House, Table 52

I feel like all I have done this summer is travel. I also feel like I have written a ton of posts lately that are not about Indy restaurants because of it. Bear with me; this will be the last one for a bit. We did a quickie trip to Chicago a few weeks ago and here is a brief (ok, brief for me) summary of where we ate.

Quartino

We were meeting an old college friend of hubby’s and the first night we went to Quartino. It is a loud, buzzy Italian place with a pretty wide ranging menu (good for kids, whom we had with us). Honestly, I found everything to be fairly average – the cheese/charcuterie plate ($25) was fine, the heirloom tomato salad ($7.75) could have stood a little more flavor (people, tomatoes should be AWESOME right now or you shouldn’t be serving them), and the Rustica pizza (with potatoes, pancetta, rosemary and onion) ($12) was bland (I think there were like 6 pieces of rosemary) and should not have had a red sauce on it in my opinion. We also had a mushroom risotto ($11.50) which was ok—it had balsamic in it giving it more of an interesting flavor than many risottos—I appreciate the acid in what is often a ridiculously heavy dish.

So with all of these things, they weren’t really wowing us—but luckily we had also ordered the steamed clams ($11.75). Wow, these things were great. They were the little teeny clams that I often dream about and have pretty much only had in Italy I think. I had begun to think they were impossible to come by in this country or something. They were in a white wine and chili broth that was also outstanding. It had a ton of the actual wine flavor (I find many shellfish broths to be pretty watered down) and a touch of heat. They were served with great pieces of grilled bread that completed the dish perfectly. Seriously, I would go back to this place just for the clams. Oh, and the zeppole for dessert ($5.50). They were great as well—super puffy and hollow freshly fried doughnuts with a dark chocolate sauce. That would be a great little meal actually—clams and doughnuts. (Hubby says that's gross. Whatever).

Rustic House

The next night we did a meal with just the adults at Rustic House. Our friends had read about it in a magazine and wanted to check it out. It has a nice vibe to it—not a huge place that was pleasantly full of people, but not so loud that we couldn’t talk. Food-wise, this place impressed us more with the appetizers and then went a little downhill overall. The wood-grilled octopus ($13) was great—it was perfectly cooked with just a little smoky flavor and was served with tomato confit and chopped olives. Perfect salty/acid combo with the octopus. The wood grilled oysters were good too ($15)—although very cheesy. They had a slight spiciness from Cajun flavorings and were tempered with a bit of lemon. The handmade gnocchi ($15) was pretty good too—there was a parsley broth and a few (like 3) little pieces of foie gras. A little more of the foie would have made this dish better—I know it is an expensive ingredient, but not THAT expensive. The duck fat marcona almonds ($5) were kind of a disappointment. They sort of just tasted like oily almonds.

I actually had another appetizer for my main—the baked shrimp with white wine and garlic butter and panko. They were disappointing and overcooked (and expensive at $16 for what was 2 or 3 shrimp). Hubby had the special prime rib ($36), which he ordered medium rare and got served medium at best. It was supposed to be cooked on their rotisserie, but I could see nothing that made it special. Our friend’s lamb T-bone chop was much better—it was perfectly cooked and tender. But I only got a bite, so I can’t talk too much about it. Our other friend had an interesting swordfish “chop” ($32) that hubby liked better than I did. I thought the fish was pretty dry. We also had a side of the corn crème brulee which was interesting, but honestly should have been a dessert, it was so sweet. It was pretty much a smooth cream based dish with a slight corn flavor that was sugared and caramelized on top just like crème brulee normally is. The actual desserts were the weakest link of the meal. Completely not worth the calories. The peaches in the peach crostada ($10) were practically crunchy they were so under ripe. The blondie brownie ($10) was fine, but nothing overly memorable. Overall, I thought this place was very hit and miss and the misses were kind of bad. Don’t think that I would repeat this place, although you could luck into a really good meal if you happened to order right.

Table 52

On the last day we had brunch at Table 52, Chef Art Smith’s restaurant. This was my favorite meal of the trip. The menu looks great, but there was fried chicken and waffles ($24) on it, so it was pretty obvious what I would be ordering. That chicken, it was outstanding. Super juicy (even the white meat) and the crust was crunchy and had just the right amount of seasoning and spice. I mean, just look at it. It is a thing of beauty. Honestly, who even needs the waffle? (Well, my son ate most of mine while I focused on the chicken). Hubby had the breakfast pizza which was also outstanding ($14). IT was a pretty large pizza crust (certainly shareable) with sawmill (or sausage) gravy, loads of cheese and bacon, and a couple of perfectly runny eggs on top. The flavors were great—I was questioning the whole gravy thing but it was perfect. You could really taste the smoky sausage flavor. We also had a side of mac and cheese that we all shared (there were 8 of us) ($12). Also really good—several kinds of cheeses and a crunchy breadcrumb top. Everyone really seemed to like this. The only downside of the place was the service was a little slow which you seem to notice more when you are dining with several children.

This is a place that takes comfort food to a new level and a place that appeals across the board to just about everyone. They even have a “healthy” section on the menu if you don’t want to indulge in all the calories. But if you are going here, I highly recommend you indulge. It was totally worth it.

Quartino

626 N. State

Chicago, IL 60610

312/698-5000

www.quartinochicago.com

Rustic House

1967 N. Halstead Street

Chicago, IL 60614

312/929-3227

www.rustichousechicago.com

Table 52

52 West Elm Street

Chicago, IL 60610

312/573-4000

www.tablefifty-two.com

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Road Trip--The Story Inn

2:23 AM | Labels: Bloomington restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Road Trips, Story Inn

The Story Inn has been on my list for quite awhile but we just never managed to get down there—it is in a somewhat secluded little town (um, called Story) near Nashville, Indiana. It just so happened this summer my daughter went to camp nearby so hubby and I decided to go spend the night and have dinner the night before we were due to pick her up.

The restaurant/inn is a really charming little place with creaky floors and supposedly a resident ghost. We rented one of the rooms in an adjoining building. It was very rustic—if you want a country type getaway for a night, this might be your cup of tea. Honestly, it was a little close to camping for me, and I if you knew me, you would know I am not much of a camper.

The restaurant has a fairly limited menu, which looks like it changes seasonably—honestly, this was one of the days that it was about 103 degrees outside so I was having a hard time committing to a really big meal. I just have a hard time eating a ton when it is that hot. I started with the “blue lady” salad (named after the aforementioned ghost). It was a salad of mixed greens, blue cheese, grapes and walnuts with a blueberry vinaigrette ($7.50). I am generally not a fan of really sweet salad dressings and was a little wary of this one, but it was really good. Possibly because blueberries aren’t so inherently sweet as other types of berries—it also seemed to have a nice balance of acid in it. The nuts and blue cheese are always one of my favorite things--and when I make my own cheese plates, I almost always add grapes as well—so really this was a nice assortment of things I really like together with a nice dressing. I would get it again.

For my main, I decided to go with an appetizer—the BBQ pork sliders. For $8.00, this was a really good deal and the homemade bbq pork was really tasty—it was super tender and juicy—it had sauce mixed all the way through that had a nice tangy kick to it. My only complaint was it was just a little too salty—and it could have used something alongside (slaw or something) to balance the flavors more and give it a little texture. It was just a little too one dimensional, just the meat and the bun (which were nice and soft but weren’t anything that you couldn’t get at the grocery). It was certainly a generous portion, and more than enough for people to share as an appetizer.

I also shared a fair amount of hubby’s eggplant parmesan ($21) and it was really tasty. The eggplant was super crunchy breaded, but what I really liked that not only was it still crunchy even with the marinara, but you could also really taste (and see) the eggplant in the crust. It seems like eggplant is often lost in a sea of sauce and cheese in this dish, but this one was one of the better versions I have had. The sauce was chunky and clearly homemade and had the right sweet and slightly acidic flavor. There was a decent amount of melted cheese as well, but not so much that it felt like you were just eating a big gooey plate of cheese.

We shared a dessert—a dark chocolate pot de crème ($5.50). It was fine but nothing really amazing. I was looking for a darker chocolate flavor than this—I really like the bitterness of really good dark chocolate and this was mostly just sweet.

I liked the atmosphere of the place visually. The thing that kind of freaked me out is that it was strangely quiet. There were a fair amount of people, but no one was really talking besides for us. There was also no background music, which it really seemed to need. There was also only one server for the whole place, and while she was nice, there was no way she could be everywhere she needed to be in a timely fashion. I imagine it is hard to staff a place like this out in the middle of nowhere, unless they have reservations. But they were certainly a little understaffed. It is a cute place, but I sort of felt like it was a bit of an off night. I am not sure what high season for a place like this is (Fall maybe?) but they didn’t seem quite ready for the small crowd they had. The food was good though, and I might be intrigued enough to go again.

Who’s been and what did you think?

The Story Inn

6404 State Road 135 South

Nashville, IN 47448

812/988-2273

http://www.storyinn.com

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Road Trip- Tavernita- Chicago

3:40 AM | Labels: Chicago Restaurants, Road Trips, Tavernita

Our final dinner on our recent trip to Chicago was at Tavernita. I was excited because I love a new place—and it was also small plates (Spanish in style). The place is really big, and the first thing I noticed was how loud it was, even when it wasn’t still that full. It didn’t help that there was a group of St. Patrick’s Day partiers that had obviously been drinking for a long time sitting right next to us. Also, I asked if we could be moved to a table on the end of our row (which was set for 3) and they said no, that they were fully booked. I was totally fine with this, but then about halfway through our meal they sat a party of two there which I found rather annoying.

Anyway, the first course we got that evening turned out to be one of the best of the evening. It was the pan con burrata with tomato marmalade on crostini ($9) It was simple, but the bread was perfectly grilled—nice grill marks but still a little chewy in the center. The tomato spread also flavored the bread and the cheese (homemade mozzarella stuffed with cream) was really good—really light, creamy and even fluffy and drizzled with olive oil. The oil added the right amount of depth to the cheese—and the whole thing was properly seasoned with salt and pepper. A simple dish that was put together just right.

The next dish that we got was the corn pudding ($12)—it came highly recommended by our server. It was a fairly dense pudding of corn meal, with some sweet pieces of corn, roasted poblano peppers and some pieces of shrimp mixed in. It was topped with what was called an herb salad, but which was just arugula as far as I can tell (I was sort of expecting a mix of things). The corn pudding was a little dryer than I thought it would be, as was the shrimp, but the flavors overall weren’t bad. The greens were lightly dressed with a vinaigrette which was a nice contrast to the sweet and rich corn and poblano flavors. We didn’t even finish it though, which is not a good sign for hubby who will eat all of anything he really likes.

Next we got the patatas ($10) which were fried chunks of potatoes, with pieces of chorizo, a brava sauce underneath and a fried egg on top. Even with the fried egg on top this dish wasn’t great. The egg wasn’t really runny enough to make up for the dryness of the dish—and the brava sauce (which is like a slightly spicy tomato sauce) was lacking—hubby didn’t realize there was even any sauce there until I told him and pointed it out to him. The chorizo was kind of dry, the potatoes were really dry and the egg was too hard cooked. This one was a miss—there was just nothing there that made it interesting.

One of the more slightly more successful dishes of the evening was a special—it was prawns a la plancha (cooked over a grill) with garlic and olive oil. They were whole, shell-on prawns and had a nice smoky flavor—I sort of couldn’t help myself from comparing them to the ones we had not long ago at The Bristol. While the flavor of these was good—nice and garlicky, the fact that they were whole and unpeeled detracted a bit because the shells were really hard to get off because they had been grilled. At The Bristol, they used the same concept but sliced them in half length-wise before cooking them, making it much easier to just pull the meat out with a fork. I know it sounds picky, but when something is difficult to eat, it just becomes annoying to me, even when the taste is pretty good.

So the next dish we got was described as housemade pappardelle with mushroom ragout and Manchego ($13). So this one was not at all what we were expecting, and was disappointing for this reason. When I hear “mushroom ragout,” I am thinking it will be a sauce of mushrooms—not a tomato sauce that had a bit of mushroom in it. Maybe I am wrong, but I wanted a mushroom sauce, not a tomato sauce. The pasta itself wasn’t bad—I do love homemade pasta. But again this dish wasn’t doing it for us and you really could barely taste there were mushrooms in there. They really should call it a chunky vegetable marinara or something.

We had been kind of disappointed with our last few dishes and hadn’t eaten a lot of them (and also because we wanted something with mushrooms), so we decided at the last minute to add one more—the coca de setas ($10). It was flatbread (there are several on the menu) with caramelized onions, mushrooms, goat cheese and more of the herb (i.e. arugula) salad. We were glad we got it as it at least gave us the mushroom fix we were craving, and the goat cheese and dressed leaves gave the dish some brightness we had been missing in the others. But as usual, a flatbread is a flatbread—nearly impossible to make it amazing as far as I can tell. The toppings weren’t bad, but the crust, well it fell a little “flat.”

Here’s the thing—I appreciate the fairly casual tavern type feel of the place, and it is obvious they are going for the fairly loud buzzy atmosphere of a busy hip restaurant (when the first word a restaurant uses on its website to describe itself is “sexy,” that’s a clue I guess). There was no way the two elderly ladies next to us (good for them for staying current right?) could be carrying on any kind of conversation with each other though (and they were quite annoyed when their martinis were not served “up” in a martini glass). I am pretty sure Tavernita has achieved the atmosphere they want, but the food feels too mass produced and uniform to me—almost like it is coming from a decent chain restaurant. And several of the items really bordered on mediocre.

And I know I rarely mention the drinks/alcohol portion of my meals, but I am pretty sure Tavernita is banking on this for a lot of their business. They have this huge, “everything on tap” thing going including beers and their wines (and apparently lots of other things). And well, the wine didn’t taste very good to me. We tried several different things and they all just seemed a little flat or something.

So while I always like trying new places in Chicago, this one was a bit of a miss for me, which I guess is good, because it allows me to not feel like I need to go back on a future visit and leaves more space for something else. I can barely keep up with everything going on in Chicago though, and as always, appreciate your suggestions for places to try when we are there.

Tavernita

151 West Erie

Chicago, IL 60654

312/274-1111

www.tavernita.com

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Super Bowl Update

Road Trip - Joseph Decuis - Revisit

Road Trip Cincinnati - Part 2

Road Trip- Orchids at Palm Court - Cincinnati

Chicago - Summer 2012

Road Trip--The Story Inn

Road Trip- Tavernita- Chicago

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